Word Count: 1300 (in notes).

Had a fab weekend off and went down to M’s for dinner (K had a big birthday) and had a fantastic meal and a damned good time, but oh God, did I pay for it in the middle of the night. I’ve just about recovered.

Have learned through all this, however, that not a bottle of Scapa whisky is to be had for love nor money anywhere, which is unfortunate as it’s namechecked in M’s new book and I wanted to find her a bottle.

Brought my flatmate J with me, and she seemed to have fun. The next day we all piled into Violet, my purple Ford Ka, and drove to Giraffe, where we had a soothing but fatty lunch amongst the shrieking brats that seem to populate Giraffe, and then went on to be seduced by the delights of Rymans (writers and their love of stationery!) before going on a truncated country drive that ended up outside Krispy Kreme (don’t ask).

In fact, I am going to be doing the Krispy Kreme Diet because it worked so fabulously for me last year. It goes like this:

  • Buy a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts and freeze them, or, if you are a petrolhead like me, just make sure you know where the nearest store that makes them fresh is.
  • Go on a punitive diet/exercise regime of your choice and stick to it, except…
  • Every time you finish a chapter of your book, have a doughnut. With nice coffee.

You will find, if you’re like me, that it’s impossible to write fast enough to earn enough doughnuts to seriously impede your diet, and yet the promise of that round, sugary, carbs-fat nexus is enough to keep you on the straight and narrow. Plus, you write more, depending on how desperate you are.

Spent this evening not upping my word count, but considering my heroine and making notes on her. And I discovered something very embarassing – to properly understand her, I need to know what music she listens to. And be playing that music while I write her.

It’s not a problem I had during Meph, because of course it’s in the future and obtaining M-Delta’s and Danny’s playlists was out of the question, unless I wanted to write and perform all the songs on them myself, and even if I did, I have a hard time believing either Danny or M-Delta would be remotely interested in listening to that.

And while I have views on music, I’m not sure that they’re what a fairly clued-up 24-year-old indie chick in Lancashire’s would be.

Any suggestions therefore welcome.